The 75 EDHF was designed in the mid '80's and was an advanced optical design for that time. I bought one new in '86 for $870 with mount (and still have it).

OTA:The OTA is 75mm x 500mm at f/6.7 containing three elements. An objective consisting of an air-spaced ED doublet and a rear "field flattener/reducer" mounted in front of the focuser. It was conceived with flat-field photography in mind. It is compact, lightweight (5.5 lbs/2.5kg) and solidly built. The optics are sharp, with good contrast, quite apochromatic and stand up well against some of today's small APO's that I have used (Taki, TMB) which is impressive for a design over fifteen years old.

FOCUSER:The focuser is multi-segmented with a rather large ID for a small scope and quite smooth in operation. The draw-tube has a solid bat-handle locking clamp, three inches of focus travel, and is 60mm (2.37") inside diameter with lock screw for slip fit adapters. Into this goes an adapter, one end threaded for 58mm filters, the other terminating in 50mm inside threads. Into this screws an adapter which takes it down to 38mm/1.5" slip fit with locking screw. Into this fits the original high quality prism diagonal or straight-through eyepiece holder which take 0.96" eyepieces directly or Pentax Rear converters (Barlow's). The eyepiece holders are friction slip-fit without locking screws and not very convenient for changing eyepieces without jostling the mount. The straight-through eyepiece adapter also unscrew to attach directly to Pentax screw mount cameras. Both 2" and 1.25" adapters are currently available.

MOUNT:The mount is solid and quite portable at 6kg/13lb. The tripod is a bit short, but not unreasonable for use by a normal sized person (over six-foot). The mount has a unique polar alignment scope (with optional illuminator) that rotates with a date/time index. When set to the current sidereal date/time, a small circle indicates where Polaris should be for precise alignment.

ACCESSORIES:A large assortment of adapters and accessories were available from Pentax.Two optional RA only tracking drives were available, an AC powered synchronous unit without controller, and a 12vdc unit with hand controller and rechargeable 12vdc battery pack. The hand controller has 4x 8x and 16x forward and reverse RA speeds.The Pentax 1.4x and 2x Rear Converters are high quality Barlow like multipliers designed for photographic (or visual) use and have 1.5" slip fit on both ends to work with the eyepiece holder, diagonal or adapters.Numerous 35mm camera adapters were available as well as an adapter for the Pentax 645 and eyepiece projection adapters.A 0.72 focal reducer to yield 360mm f/4.8 optics for 35mm photography.Mounting plates and piggy-back adapters for OTA's and camera combinations.

Exceptionally compact. Exquisite optics. Smooth focuser. Very well built overall. Series of focuser adapters required to use is not convenient for those in the USA as there is no importer. In spite of that, any competent, or half way competent, machinist can make a 1.5” to 1.25” adapter on a lathe in 15 minutes. The superb optics in such a compact package make it all worth while. Shortness of mount legs doesn’t bother me (I’m 6’ 1” tall) as I usually observe sitting down anyway. The mount legs are extremely stiff for aluminum legs. The equatorial mount itself is a tiny thing of beauty, and well sized to the small tube. An excellent combination of stability, weight, and size in an equatorial mount for a tube the size of the 75 EDHF, but will also handle longer tubes quite well. If you ever get a chance to buy one, don’t pass it up.

Bought my EDHF used at a flea market two years ago for a measly $300. The mount head was damaged ( vertical adjustment treads ripped out and knob/axle missing)Also have a slightly worn focuser rack, and a fairly scatched front lens.Anyhow, the scope is performing very well, but I haver never achieved any superb results yet on Jupiter & Saturn. The major reason might be that I'm living in a valley where the heat from industy & housing cauces a lot of air disturbance in the autum/spring/winter time (In Norway, where I live, the summernights are to "bright" ). My major grumble against the set-up is the physical shortness of the mount, which makes you have to go down on your knees to catch anything above 50 degrees. Anyhow, at $ 300 this APO was a ripp-off, and still is !

>Bought my EDHF used at a flea market two years ago for a measly $300.
>The mount head was damaged ( vertical adjustment treads ripped out and knob/axle missing)
>Also have a slightly worn focuser rack, and a fairly scatched front lens.
>Anyhow, the scope is performing very well, but I haver never achieved any superb results yet on Jupiter & Saturn.
>The major reason might be that I'm living in a valley where the heat from industy & housing cauces a lot of air disturbance in the autum/spring/winter time (In Norway, where I live, the summernights are to "bright" ).
>My major grumble against the set-up is the physical shortness of the mount, which makes you have to go down on your knees to catch anything above 50 degrees.
>Anyhow, at $ 300 this APO was a ripp-off, and still is !

Pentax 75 EDHF

Exceptionally sharp and contrasty up til 150 x magnification, and usable even up at 250x. Tripod is to short for people over 5 feet tall.